At the heart of the technology is a tiny injectable microchip device that delivers small pulses of energy to electrodes near surrounding nerves, triggering a reaction that enables the brain to remap specific pain signals, thus providing pain relief. Historically with SCS, dependency on pain medications can be drastically reduced or even eliminated.

While neuromodulation has been a proven, FDA-approved treatment for back and leg pain for more than 30 years, what’s different about Stimwave is the small size of the device – between 2 and 11 centimeters, so small that it can be implanted through a standard needle – as well as the elimination of the long wires having to be painfully tunneled through the body and connected to the battery source. Indeed Stimwave says over 80 percent of the complications in neuromodulation therapy result from these large, bulky devices and associated connections.

With the Stimwave technology, only a small device with electrode contacts and an embedded chip is placed within the body through a needle, shortening the time required significantly for the minimally-invasive, outpatient procedure, and enabling a lower cost option for the industry.

The Stimwave electroceutical device contains no internal batteries or other toxic materials and is 95 percent smaller than the smallest available implantable battery. It is fixed in place by an anchor, so it doesn’t move except with the body movement. It naturally stays “in line” with the body’s nerves, allowing a freedom of motion that is impossible with bulkier implanted devices. The Stimwave device is a permanent, long-term implant and features the ability to allow the patient to have a whole body 3T or 1.5T MRI, without removing the implant, which is unique in the industry.

Currently being marketed throughout Europe, Stimwave’s revolutionary electroceutical device will be made commercially available in the U.S. as of January 2015.

Physician comments

“I am extremely excited about this new technology developed by Stimwave and recent clearance by the FDA. Now people in pain will have additional options including the ability to receive a permanent implant with a far less invasive and complicated surgery, while avoiding the cumbersome long-term issues with recharging, as is the case today with other systems,” said Dr. David Kloth, MD, Medical Director of the Connecticut Pain Care Center and author of Pain Wise. The Freedom SCS System is well positioned to revolutionize the pain management industry.

Company comments

“This technology is no longer an academic-type science experiment, but a real, viable innovation that can immediately start being utilized by patients in pain,” said co-inventor and Chairman Laura Tyler Perryman.